Matthew H. Carpenter

Matthew Hale Carpenter (22 December 1824-24 February 1881) was a US Senator from Wisconsin (R) from 4 March 1869 to 3 March 1875 (succeeding James Rood Doolittle and preceding Angus Cameron) and from 4 March 1879 to 24 February 1881 (succeeding Timothy O. Howe and preceding Cameron).

Biography
Matthew Hale Carpenter was born in Moretown, Vermont in 1824, and he studied law under the tutelage of family friend and future congressman and governor Paul Dillingham. He later worked alongside Rufus Choate, but he decided to make a name for himself in the American West, and he became an attorney in Wisconsin. He became involved with Democratic politics there, supporting Stephen A. Douglas in 1860; however, he saw the Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln as an honest candidate, and argued that secession was treating, stating that he would be the first man to raise a musket in defense of the US Constitution. He became a rousing speaker of the Union cause following the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter in 1861, and Carpenter supported Lincoln's re-election in 1864. From 1869 to 1875 and from 1879 to 1881, he served as a US Senator from the Republican Party, perpetuating the Republicans' political machinery in Wisconsin. He continued to support Ulysses S. Grant's administration despite the loss of reformers' support due to corruption allegations, and he argued in favor of Democrat Samuel J. Tilden during the 1876 presidential election. A gifted orator, he was dubbed the "Webster of the West". He died in office in 1881.